Personal care: Grooming: Top Products 2019

On the face of it, you’d be forgiven for thinking Brits are getting smellier. The personal grooming category has fallen a total of £34.9m in grocery across soaps, shower products and deodorant. Volumes are also down across all those sectors – by as much as 7.4%, in the case of liquid soap.

But it’s not that shoppers are cleaning themselves less. They’re simply choosing to buy their grooming products outside traditional grocery channels.

“Bargain stores and discounters are stealing spend away from conventional grocery retail,” says Nielsen senior analyst Ben Hanson. “This is impacting retailer promotional strategies, which means a more challenging environment for brands to exist in.”

Female skincare is the only sector in the black – edging up 0.3%. Nevertheless, the top three brands are in the red. Simple, L’Oréal and Olay have lost £6.4m between them, in part due to a fall in average prices.

Unilever VP for beauty & personal care Chris Barron believes the trend for posh natural products – driven by people pursuing healthier, more sustainable lifestyles – will help return value. “These products have now become more mainstream, with sales growing at 9%. We want to make natural the new normal,” he says.

The Top Products 

In association with nielsen

The Grocer’s Top Launch

BeCo shampoo bar Clarity & Co

BeCo is the posh soap brand from social enterprise Clarity & Co, where 80% of employees are visually impaired, disabled or disadvantaged. In June, it joined the plastic-free trend with its first shampoo bar. Packed in sustainably sourced cardboard, it’s made with argan oil (a common cosmetics ingredient). The 90g shampoo bar comes in a Honey Blossom variant, and is biodegradable, vegan, cruelty-free and hypoallergenic. Priced at £3.75, it’s the first product of its kind to be listed by Waitrose.